What are the most recommended books matching 'style over substance'?
We found 447 book recommendations
What do readers say about The Night Circus?
magical circus exhibitions almost dreamlike quality style over substance non-linear plot lineThe circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Against the grey sky the towering tents are striped black and white. A sign hanging upon iron gates reads:
Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn
As dusk shifts to twili... More details on The Night Circus
The man billed as Prospero the Enchanter receives a fair amount of correspondence via the theater office, but this is the first envelope addressed to him that contains a suicide note, and it is also t...
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What do readers say about After Dark?
one night in tokyo brilliant, spare, concise third person prose bald declaratory styleReality bends all the more acutely with lack of sleep in this stunning novel from the master of the surreal.
Eyes mark the shape of the city
The midnight hour approaches in an almost-empty diner. Mari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her s... More details on After Dark
Through the eyes of a high-flying night bird, we take in the scene from midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature—or more like a single collective entity created by ma...
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What do readers say about We Were Liars?
poetic lyrical cadence simple/easy to understand storyline old money style families young adult mysteryA beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends-the Liars-whose friendship turns destructive.... More details on We Were Liars
Dad was a middling-successful professor of military history. Back then I adored him. He wore tweed jackets. He was gaunt. He drank milky tea. He was fond of board games and let me win, fond of boats a...
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What do readers say about Fates and Furies?
pretentious and superfluous full-bodied and evocative complicated and entertaining plot artful and engaging**Now available to pre-order, MATRIX, the remarkable new novel from Lauren Groff**
'A really powerful novel' BARACK OBAMA
'Enough betrayal, vengeance and sex to read like one of the Greek tragedies' OBSERVER
'Rich, lyrical and rewarding.' PAULA HAWKI... More details on Fates and Furies
Two people were coming up the beach. She was fair and sharp in a green bikini, though it was May in Maine and cold. He was tall, vivid; a light flickered in him that caught the eye and held it. Their ...
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What do readers say about Mirror Mirror?
rich and inventive a double retelling a fictionalized biography a sloppy mess"A brilliant achievement."
-Boston Herald
"Entertaining…profound….A novel for adults that unearths our buried fascination with the primal fears and truths fairy tales contain."
-Christian Science Monitor ... More details on Mirror Mirror
LONG, LONG AGO, in the winter-time, when the snowflakes were falling like little white feathers from the sky, a beautiful Queen sat beside her window, which was framed in black ebony, and stitched. As...
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What do readers say about Dirt?
sublime and intelligent bleak and gloomy dark and unforgiving novel the author's familyNew York Times Editor's Choice
Twenty-two-year-old Galen lives with his emotionally dependent mother in a secluded house outside Sacramento, surviving on the family's trust fund-money that his aunt, Helen, and seventeen-year-old cousin, Jennifer, are... More details on Dirt
Galen waited under the fig tree for his mother. He read Siddhartha for the hundredth time, the young Buddha gazing into the river. He felt the enormous presence of the fig tree above him, listened for...
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What do readers say about The Harmony Silk Factory?
lush and rich a well constructed novel marvellous modern formula of style over substanceJoseph Conrad, W. Somerset Maugham, and Anthony Burgess have shaped our perceptions of Malaysia. In Tash Aw, we now have an authentic Malaysian voice that remaps this literary landscape.
The Harmony Silk Factory traces the story of textile merchant J... More details on The Harmony Silk Factory
THE HARMONY SILK FACTORY is the name of the shop house my father bought in 1942 as a front for his illegal businesses. To look at, the building is unremarkable. Built in the early thirties by itineran...
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What do readers say about The Song of Achilles?
breathtakingly beautiful authentic-sounding prose a retelling homericGreece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the... More details on The Song of Achilles
MY FATHER WAS A KING AND THE SON OF KINGS. HE was a short man, as most of us were, and built like a bull, all shoulders. He married my mother when she was fourteen and sworn by the priestess to be fru...
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What do readers say about The Secret History?
rich, erudite style easy to guess descriptive and intense moody and evocativeUnder the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when ... More details on The Secret History
Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this:...
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What do readers say about Slaughterhouse-Five?
a fictionalized memoir entertaining and refreshing fresh postmodern language simple, laconic styleSelected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of w... More details on Slaughterhouse-Five
All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn’t his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to h...
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